Dubai: The Race Director of the Dubai Tour has stressed that the Gulf Swing of cycling tours are here to complement rather than compete against each other.
Organisers Dubai Sports Council (DSC) and Italy-based RCS are associated with the organisation of the season-opening Dubai Tour and the Abu Dhabi Tour — the fourth and final round on the Gulf Swing cycling calendar.
The Dubai Tour, upgraded from the next edition to five stages, will be held from January 31 to February 4 — taking in five of the seven emirates — while the Abu Dhabi Tour will bring down the curtain on the regional swing when the event is held from February 23-26.
In-between, the teams will take part in the Qatar Tour (February 6-10) and the Tour of Oman (February 14-19). For the first time next year, the Dubai Tour has gone up by a day and 194km more for a total distance of 865km spread across five days of the race.
“All races in this part of the world are here to complement each other,” Huraiz Bin Huraiz, Race Director, Dubai Tour, told media at the announcement of the new route last week.
“From next year we move up to five stages along with the addition of another 194km. With this one new stage we cover all of the Northern Emirates along with a stage that will travel right along the coastline of the UAE. The challenge each year is always to be more unique while trying to be creative in adding value to the race by bringing in new spots,” he added.
The Ras Al Khaimah Stage, an 188km brand new stage, is the latest addition to the Dubai Tour. This year’s tour will see the peloton ride through four different Emirates — Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Ras Al Khaimah — as it heads through a flat route that goes through Dubai Design District, the Sharjah University and the Al Marjan Island complex, the shaped coral archipelago of four artificial islands: Breeze, Treasure, Dream and View Islands.
“I think that at the end of the day, all tours in the region complement each other. It is the beginning of the year and it is just so perfect for riders to come to this part of the world, enjoy beautiful weather and have a great start to their season. The Gulf Swing sort of warms them up and gets them ready for more gruelling battles ahead,” Bin Huraiz noted.
“In my opinion I thing it is good to have all four tours close to each other with a reasonable amount of time for rest to give the riders time to breathe and prepare for the next one. And with the addition of another stage, we cover more kilometres in the country and showcase more of the UAE to the world,” he added.
“We are always forward to challenges. We are trying to probe new areas. The Dubai Tour is getting more and more mature and the whole team is learning. At the end of the day, it is a great team effort and the community is aware of our tour. This, in turn, has resulted in getting more spectators engaged in our events,” Bin Huraiz added.
